American Artist Magazine Article

DISCUSSION -- Based on quotes from
Linda Price Indicating the shoulder of the girl on the left in The Simons Children,

Alzofon used an outline with an inward notch to pop the arm out from the
chair

and give it volume. 'I don't hide the fact that this is a line,' she says,
noting that she
learned this technique from looking at paintings by Rubens.

I think contemporary
representational painters don't make enough use of line. Line can very effectively
summarize visual ideas. Line is a significant element of art, and it is
completely acceptable to integrate it with fields of color in the painting
process. If you would like to see one of my note pages about Rubens' line
-- not to mention color, visit this museum
note (the arrows point to lines in the painting).
This is just a sketch, but for me, jotting down notes like this reinforces
the live experience of viewing good painting, and deepens my memory of important
findings.

The "inward notches" are the tips of line that you see traveling
briefly into the interior of the arm/armpit. Each inward deviation you see,
no matter how small, represents a wrap around a sub-form seen at the boundary
of the arm's edge. Careful attention to every and all of these sub-forms
contributes to the believability of form representation.